Visiting Nathan and Alyssa in Great Falls.

We visited our friends Nathan and Alyssa in Great Falls, Montana this past weekend. We had a great time.

We arrived at their place on Friday night. We sat up with Nathan and caught up on the past three years. Alyssa is a nurse, and she had to work the night shift each of the three nights we were in town.

We went out for breakfast at Tracy's on Saturday morning, and then we went for a hike along the Missouri River. We walked along the river canyon. It was a beautiful sunny day. Alyssa was awake when we got home, so we spent some time talking together and drinking tea. Then it was dinnertime, and Nathan did not disappoint us. We had antelope burgers. They were delicious! We played Quiddler and kept an eye on the baseball game for the rest of the night.

On Sunday we drove a ways out of town to find a cave. We hiked through the deep, wet snow on the side of a mountain until we came to the cave mouth. Then we climbed down into it and started exploring. We had rope and headlamps, so it was not very dangerous. The two most difficult aspects of the cave exploration were climbing down a rock face with a rope and crawling through a narrow opening on my back. We saw many beautiful crystal formations on the ceiling of the cave. Unfortunately, there was also a lot of graffiti inside. We turned off all our lamps for a couple minutes and were surprised at how quiet it was. The only sounds we heard were those of water dripping and dropping around us. After about an hour in the cave, we climbed out and enjoyed some beers Nathan had hid in his pack. The we hiked back to the car and drove home under a spectacular sunset.

We relaxed and did some necessary laundry when we got back to the house. It's funny how lying on one's back while crawling through a cave can make one dirty. Then we ate a delicious lasagna for dinner and played some more Quiddler. In case you can't tell, we're pretty big on Quiddler. At around 9:30 Nathan broke out some antelope sausages, which were delicious. We sat up late talking and playing with the dogs. Then we went to bed.

We woke up early this morning, packed up the car, and went out for breakfast with Nathan and Alyssa at Tracy's (again!). The food there is delicious, especially the Swiss pancakes. We said our goodbyes around 9:00. Then it was time to hop in the car and drive the 360-odd miles back to Idaho Falls to get Geronimo.

So now I'm sitting at Wackerli Volkswagen. Geronimo is getting that new fuel pump right now, and we should be on the road in an hour or two.

A big thank you to Nathan and Alyssa for hosting us this past weekend. It was great to see you and catch up. Thanks for your friendship and warm hospitality. We also really enjoyed your dogs, Cody and Tao, and we wish you all the best with Babu. Thanks again!